NASA uses new technique to snap high-res asteroid images

A recent upgrade at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico has helped NASA capture high-res images of the asteroid 2014 HQ124, which passed fairly close by Earth last week. The upgrade allowed the researchers to operate the 305-metre Arecibo in tandem with other radio telescopes to improve the resolution of a technique in …

[Wzrd1]

A bit of cooperation, a bit of innovation and a lot of perspiration gives us these magnificent accomplishments.

[Martin Budden]

I am mightily impressed. 4 metre resolution at 1.4 meeeelion kilometres is just amazing!

[Tom 7]

“30 times brighter than what Goldstone can produce observing on its own”.

???

Not brighter but better resolution shirley?

[Nick Ryan]

Re: “30 times brighter than what Goldstone can produce observing on its own”.

I guess if more radar (EM) waves are observed then "brighter" would be an adequate term for the amount of EM radiation received: the only difference between what we consider "light" and radar is the frequency.

[RegGuy1]

Re: “30 times brighter than what Goldstone can produce observing on its own”.

Yes, it would be brighter if you built a 42km diameter dish, because you can collect far more radiation. But with just two sample points on that dish with sensitive enough equipment you are able to discern more detail.

Considering these images are from a ground-based telescope(s) the images are simply stunning!

Well done NASA -- I take my hat off to you.

[John 62]

Re: “30 times brighter than what Goldstone can produce observing on its own”.

yes, brighter. I'm not up to speed with the maths (I don't have a crossbow in my desk drawers), but the resolution will be dependent on the wavelength of the radar, combined with the fact that even if the resolution is being improved, there's a limit to the usefulness of it because of the signal to noise ratio. A brighter signal means the stuff you want to measure stands out more against any sources of noise, hence narrowing the error bars for each pixel. There's a reason a cheap low-res webcam can give better hobbyist astronomy photos than a fancy DSLR.

[Anonymous Coward]

Double whammy

When it hits a city.